The typical home currently includes either a one- or two-car garage. In newer homes having two-car garages, the trend is for the garage to be proportioned to accommodate exactly two mid-size or even compact cars with little to no room left over for storage. This poses a problem for people with such bulky items as lawn tractors, motorcycles, jet skis and the like that cannot reasonably be stored indoors.
One solution is to build an outdoor storage barn or shed for the garage overflow items. While such a structure solves the problem of protecting the items from the elements, outdoor storage structures have several drawbacks. For example, outdoor storage structures are less secure than garages, and are more prone to break-ins and theft of the items stored therein. Another drawback is that since the storage structures are unconnected to the house, they are not be heated or cooled to the extent that a garage is and thus are less desirable for storage of items sensitive to temperature extremes. Further, many communities have ordinances or regulations that prohibit storage structures, therefore obviating this particular solution to the storage problem.
Another storage solution is the suspension of bulky vehicles from the garage ceiling. While this is a practical solution for lightweight items such as bicycles, it is impractical for heavier items such as lawn tractors and motorcycles.
Still another means for storing heavy and bulky items in a garage is through the use of a lift platform, such as the one discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,153 to Norris. Norris discloses a hydraulically actuated lifting platform that may be bolted to a garage floor and used to lift vehicles, such as motorcycles, off of the garage floor for storage. While useful, the Norris lift still suffers from the disadvantage of being non-portable, since it must be bolted down to the garage floor. The Norris lift also has the drawback of having a central support column extending upwardly at an angle of between 45 and 75 degrees, such that the Norris lift cannot be positioned flush against a garage wall but must instead extend inwardly into the already tight confines of the garage.
There therefore remains a need for a need for a portable storage mechanism that effectively occupies a minimum amount of viable storage space to effectively increase the storage capacity of a garage or like enclosure. The present invention addresses this need.